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"After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man."--Dust jacket.

Opinion

From Library Staff

It's notable that this detective mystery received several really strong reviews when it was still thought to be a first book by an unknown author. Gailbraith (really J.K. Rowling) tells an exciting story and introduces us to a refreshing new sleuth and his secretary, in pursuit of an authentic wh... Read More &raquo

"After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

From the critics

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Enjoyed this book. I thought it was a good detective story and I felt Rowling did an excellent job of getting the reader to invest in the characters, especially Cormoran Strike and his secretary Robin. Looking forward to the next one.

Slow, plodding, pedantic. After 200 (of over 400) pages I had already figured out the ending so flipped to the last chapter and was correct. While this is Rowling's first attempt at this genre, I doubt it would have been published if written by anyone else. As other reviewers have said, it was annoying and I felt my time had been wasted. The characters are cliche and unbelievable, the plot is predictable, and there are pages upon pages of unnecessary description that add nothing to the sense of place, nor to the plot. I recommend you give this a miss!

Very slow moving, over written boring background and character development. She does not respect her reading audience as sentient adults. After 200 pages I had to skip to the last chapters I was so annoyed by the writing. Good plot ending but such weak writing.

This book is not so much about the mystery as it is about Cormoran Strike, a private detective just barely making the rent of his office cum living quarters, and at the same time trying to come back from a leg injury during his army career that ended in amputation. We feel his pain and discomfort, and we understand his determination to overcome and lead a regular life. His receptionist has her own issues but not anywhere near as heavy as his. Together they work on a murder case and, of course, solve it by the end of the book. Very enjoyable read.

One quarter of the way through ... and I couldn't go on! Nothing happens for way too many pages, it just goes on and on and on about the most insipid moments in main character Cormoran Strike's mundane life. Had to put it down even though I really hate to leave a book unfinished. Will not be reading any more of Rowling's books, that's for sure!

I never got really excited about this novel. Continuity was missing and I found some of the characters unbelievable and unnecessary to the plot. I eventually finished the book, mainly because I don't like to leave things unfinished, but it was not a satisfactory read. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I'm a big fan of the genre but, much as I tried, I could not finish this one. Nothing about it generated any interest to put in the effort. So I moved on to the next title on my "to read" list and am glad that I did.

Summary

Unless you have been taking an extended tech and media vacation this summer, you will have heard that J.K. Rowling – author of the über-successful Harry Potter series - was outed as the true name behind Cuckoo’s Calling, using pseudonym Robert Galbraith. As any high-powered author would do, she sued the law firm that leaked her identity for a six-figure sum and then donated it, plus proceeds from the sale of the novel for the next three years, to The Soldier’s Charity, an organization that supports veterans and their families in Great Britain. She did this as a thank-you for those in the military who helped her with her research, leading her to create one of the most hard-boiled detectives to hit pages since Sam Spade, Cormoran Strike (how could he not be hard-boiled with a name like that?). A wounded veteran with an infamous set of rock parents, Strike grew up with his half-sister in care of his aunt and uncle. He joined the military as an investigator, went to Afghanistan and came back missing part of a leg (but is far too proud to admit it to those who don’t know him), and opens a detective agency. Unfortunately he has some hard luck with women and alcohol, until he literally runs into (and nearly knocks to her death) fresh-faced, and newly engaged Robin Ellacott, recently arrived in London from Yorkshire, who is assigned as his new temporary office worker. Robin, secretly thrilled to be working for a PI, by far the most efficient tem Strike has ever been assigned, and she proves herself both resourceful and intrepid as Strike gets his first big case – a model falls to her death and three months later her brother shows up, asking Strike to prove it was murder and not suicide. Strike is no hack – he is thoughtful, driven and methodical – much like his creator, Rowling. She slowly unveils the threads of the mystery with great care, precision, a host of fully-formed characters, more than a few red herrings and loads of wit. In fact, it is a far better book than Rowling’s last non-Potter novel, Casual Vacancy, and leaves the reader wanting to know more about Cormoran Strike. Let us hope that being outed as Robert Galbraith does not keep JK Rowling from creating further mysteries for him to solve. Cuckoo’s Calling is a first rate mystery, no matter who the author really is.